Rapido Raises $43 Mn In Series C Led By Westbridge Capital

Bengaluru-headquartered bike taxi startup Rapido is raising INR 321 Cr or $43.4 Mn in Series C funding round led by existing investor Westbridge Capital, with participation from eight other investors.

According to the ministry of corporate affairs filings accessed by Inc42, Rapido has allotted 30 equity shares at a face value of INR 1 each for cash at a premium of INR 16,644.01. It has also allotted 1,81,467 Series C compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS) of face value of INR 10 at a premium of INR 16,635.01 per share.

Westbridge Capital through its alternative investment fund (AIF) has invested INR 216 Cr or $29.3 Mn for 1,30,222 Series C CCPS. Nexus Ventures has invested INR 51 Cr ($6.9 Mn) for 30,826 preference shares and Pawan Munjal Family Trust has invested INR 5 Cr ($676K) for 10 equity shares and 2994 preference shares.

Other investors who participated in the round were:

• Everblue Bangladesh LLC invested INR 14.6 Cr ($1.9 Mn) for  8,807 Series C preference shares
• Motherson Lease Solutions invested INR 10 Cr ($1.3 Mn) for 6,008 preference shares
• Konark Trust invested INR 2.89 Cr ($391K) for 1,737 preference shares
• QED Innovation Labs LLP infused INR 73 Lakh  ($99K) for 10 equity shares and 430 preference share
• OLX CEO Amarjit Singh Batra invested INR 49.9 Lakh ($67K) for 10 equity shares and 290 Series C CCPS
• MMPL Trust has invested INR 25 Lakh ($34K) for 153 preference shares

Rapido’s board and shareholders had given approvals to these allotments on April 20, 2021, and the shares were allocated by May 5, 2021.

The company is said to be raising $50 Mn in the Series C round, as per an Entrackr report last month, which quoted unnamed sources.

Prior to this, Rapido had raised INR 390.11 Cr ($54.9 Mn) in its Series B funding round in October 2021. The round too was led by Westbridge Capital, along with the participation from  BAce Fund, Integrated Growth Capital, Nexus Ventures, Konark Trust, Sabre Investment, Skycatcher LLC and others. Overall, the company has raised $121 Mn to date.

The bike rental startup was founded in 2015 by Rishikesh SR, Pavan Guntupalli and Aravind Sanka. Rapido claims to have a presence in more than 100 Indian cities with its bike taxi service, with more than 15 Mn customers and 25 Mn app downloads to date. The company offers bike taxi, auto services and peer-to-peer delivery service for essentials such as food and medicines through Rapido Local.

Besides this, Rapido Store provides logistics and delivery services for SMBs and kirana stores. The company claims to have more than 1.5 Mn registered drivers, called captains, across India. In February, the company launched Rapido Rental services in six Indian cities — Bengaluru, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata and Jaipur.

Amid the Covid second wave, Rapido has partnered with Zomato, Swiggy, BigBasket, Delhivery, Practo, Grab, Xpressbees, and Udaan, to support them with last-mile connectivity and deliveries of essentials in Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata, Vijayawada, Tirupati, and Guntur.